Organizational Beauty

This morning, I was trying to catch up on my Instapaper queue backlog and came across (ironically) Marco’s post about the Mac Pro and Apple’s future plans for it. Not really an important article for most of you reading this, unless you happen to care specifically about the fate of the Mac Pro. What struck me was the picture at the top of the post.

[caption id=“attachment_926” align=“aligncenter” width=“497” caption=“Apple's Mac Pro”]Mac Pro[/caption]

The first Mac I ever used came about from a trial run at my former job. When asked if I wanted to “test use” a Mac, I said sure. The Power Mac G5 (the former name of the Mac Pro) was shipped a couple of weeks later. When it arrived at my office, the first thing I noticed was the stylish box it came in. Let’s remember, I was used to the Gateway and Dell boxes at the time and this was a complete departure from that. (Sadly, not much has changed in this realm since.)

We opened the box (my colleague and I, as I had never set up a Mac before), and removed the machine. First impression: gorgeous. It was solid aluminum, and looked like an industrial design marvel in its simplicity. Again, unlike desktops that I was used to from Dell and Gateway, no stickers adorned the surface. No latches for hidden doors on it. No ridiculous plastic covers that served only to differentiate the color pattern and/or make it look that much cheaper.

The real difference happened when Robert opened the inside of the machine. Again, I had never seen the inside of an Apple machine, much less the inside of this beast of a computer. In my mind, there would be wires everywhere (as this particular machine was fully loaded) and boards sticking out and fans scattered about, as something had to cool this massive system.

What I found, however, was what you see in the picture above. I don’t even believe any more commentary is needed. If you’ve ever seen the inside of a “normal” PC, you know. You can appreciate the pure beauty of how this machine is laid out and manufactured.

It’s beautiful. Geeky? Yes. But still just as beautiful.

Lee Feagin @leefeagin